DENVER — Wilson Chandler has plugged a number of different holes for the Denver Nuggets in the last two seasons.
After missing all of 2015-16 with a torn labrum, the Nuggets’ versatile forward bounced back the next year and averaged a career high 15.7 points per game. Chandler cycled between a starting and reserve role. Sometimes the Nuggets asked him to play small forward. Other times, power forward.
This year, Chandler’s again had a variety of responsibilities on his plate. He began the season in the starting lineup at small forward. At the beginning of February, Nuggets coach Michael Malone inserted him as the starting power forward due to injuries in the front court.
By now, Chandler’s learned to live with the uncertainty about his role, even if it has frustrated him at times. But if the 11-year veteran had it his way, he’d operate primarily at the position that comes most naturally to him: power forward.
“That’s the position I’m most comfortable in,” Chandler said. “The way the team is built, we’ve got a lot of bigs. So we don’t play as small as we did last year or the year before that.”
In Tuesday’s 117-109 win over the San Antonio Spurs, Chandler scored in double digits for the third straight game. He finished with 17 points, getting one tough bucket inside after another. His 17-point, eight-rebound, five-assist performance came three days after he poured in a season-high 26 points in a win over the Phoenix Suns.
After many criticized him for playing passive basketball for much of the season, Chandler looks as aggressive as ever.
Because of his height (6-foot-10) and versatility, Chandler has shifted between small forward and power forward. But as he made clear following Tuesday’s win, he’s most comfortable at the latter position. His length allows him to keep opposing power forwards in check on the defensive end. On offense, his mobility and handle allows him to go by bigger players.
“That’s the position I came in playing,” Chandler explained. “I started under (Mike) D’Antoni. I came in under George Karl. They put me there. Just familiar and comfortable.”
Chandler spent nearly three seasons in New York under Mike D’Antoni, the father of the Seven Seconds or Less Phoenix Suns teams and one of the men who helped usher in small ball. Then in February 2011, he was traded to the Nuggets as a part of the Carmelo Anthony deal. In Denver he first played under George Karl, who also didn’t hesitate to slot him in at power forward.
Last season under Malone, Chandler split time between the three and four. He logged many of his minutes in small ball units featuring Danilo Gallinari and Nikola Jokic. In the 652 minutes those three spent on the floor together, the Nuggets outscored opponents by 6.9 points per 100 possessions.
Gallinari is gone now. And with Paul Millsap and Mason Plumlee sucking up so many minutes in the front court this season, Chandler hasn’t gotten as many opportunities to play power forward.
“I think for him it’s just kind of, ‘OK, let me find my role here and look for ways to be aggressive,'” Malone said. “You saw it in transition tonight, you saw it in half court tonight, him just getting to the rim. I thought he was fouled a bunch of times, and he never got the benefit of the call, which is going to happen some nights. He just played really aggressive. And I think he’s confident right now. What I’m happy about is that he followed up that Phoenix game with another great performance tonight. When you add him to the mix, we become an even tougher team to guard.”
Playing more power forward could have something to do with Chandler’s two-game outburst. So could the fact that the trade deadline’s not hanging over his head anymore. Chandler, who missed two games at the end of January with what he said was an upper respiratory infection, was rumored to be available at Thursday’s deadline. But when the dust settled, he was still a Nugget.
“At least you know the rest of the year where you’ll be at,” Chandler said. “You kind of just go out and just play. The team decides what happens at the end of the season, and you do the same thing.”
Chandler has a decision to make on a $12.8 million player option this summer. For now, he’s focused on finishing the season out in Denver. He’s played perhaps his two best games of the season in a four-day span.
Could it have something to do with the fact that he’s playing the position he’s most comfortable in? Is it related to the trade deadline coming and going? Is it simpler than that — just coincidence?
“I’m just being aggressive when I get touches,” Chandler said. “That’s pretty much it.”
